Some victims are unable to sleep while the humming reverberates in their brains. Others complain of headaches, nosebleeds, anxiety, shortness of breath and a lack of balance usually associated with inner ear problems. The Taos Hum is named after the American community in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, New Mexico, where it was first heard around 1990. Mrs. K.C. Grams was one of the first "hummers" to go public. Since then scores of Taos residents have complained of the noise. At the time the area's congressional representative, Bill Richardson, pooh poohed the claims. Later convinced the problem was real, he called on the House Permanent Select Commitee on Intelligence to investigate.
The hum is on the threshhold of human hearing - from about 20 to 20,000 hertz or cycles per second. Acoustic investigations have concentrated on low - frequency sounds between 33 and 80 hertz, but have failed to pinpoint the source of the strange sound. The sound has been described as low, grinding and pulsating, like a diesal truck idling in the distance. Explanations are as varied as the people who claim to hear the noise. Everything from a form of mild, contagious mass hallucination to possible secret electromagnetic warfare experiments being conducted at one of the high tech laboratories in the area are discussed as possible sources.
Yet Taos is not unique. Similar reports have been made in Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Canada and many places in the United States, most recently in Indiana. Troubled hummers in England have even formed an organisation, the Low Frequency Noise Sufferers Association. The only certainty when dealing with the hum, is that some people hear it, while others do not. That is not to say that the noise isnt real, perhaps some peoples sense of hearing is more suseptible to the noise than others.
While a similar effect has been shown to occur with electric motors operating at certain frequencies, this does not appear to be the case in most of these situations.
